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Religion news in brief

Associated Press
5:34 p.m. CDT May 16, 2014

Religion briefs

FILE - In this Aug. 28, 2013, file photo, a group of people protest the New York Police Department’s program of infiltrating and informing on Muslim communities during a rally near police headquarters in New York. The department has since disbanded the unit, but it has taken a tough stance in a heated legal battle over its continuing use of Muslim informants in terror threat investigations. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)(Photo: Seth Wenig, AP)

NEW YORK – The New York Police Department is taking a tough stance in a legal battle over its use of informants in the city’s Muslim community. The department last month disbanded a unit that tracked the everyday lives of Muslims. But it is fighting a challenge to its ongoing practice of cultivating Muslim informants to detect terror threats. The practice includes debriefing Muslims who are stopped by police. The lawsuit asks a federal judge to declare the surveillance unconstitutional and halt it. The city has struck back by demanding to see any communications by the plaintiffs that mention terrorism, jihad or the war in Afghanistan. The plaintiffs say the city is unjustly seeking information that’s private.

Vatican officials do preconference tour

PHILADELPHIA – Vatican officials have conducted a tour in Philadelphia ahead of a major Roman Catholic gathering that the city’s archbishop believes will include an appearance by the pope. Archbishop Charles Chaput said he’s “personally convinced” the pontiff is coming to the World Meeting of Families in September 2015, but nothing is certain until an official announcement from the Holy See, which won’t come for several months.

67 missionaries in Ukraine reassigned

SALT LAKE CITY – The Mormon church is moving 67 missionaries out of Ukraine due to continuing unrest there.

Church officials say the welfare of missionaries is always their first priority, and every effort is being made to keep them safe.